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Topic: How do you record? (Read 17509 times)

I know this was a topic in the previous board, but I really would benefit from some advice. I'd like to purchase a cost-effective, portable set up for my PC. I've recently switched to Ableton Live and really like it, so I'm talking interfaces. If I recall APK mentioned a very affordable "small tower" of sorts with lots of connectors for mics and the like - that one that caught my interest especially...thanks again!

Well, most of the people i'm talking to dont believe me wheni tell them the facts about my Devices.

There is my Laptop (standard everyday Laptop, nothing special) with build-in Soundcard.So basically the sound from my guitar + the effects went directly into the onboard soundcardstraight to Ableton Live.

I'm also kind of amazed, how clear the quality of the recordings is.So i guess i cant complain, but perhaps a bit more CPU Powercould be great.

Ben:I don't use Live (I use Sonar, and recently getting into Reaper because of the great routing and ease of recording of VSTi's live), but I have used it and think its excellent - solid program (code) and well designed. If I used sample loops I'd certainly switch to it 'cause its unmatched in that area and so user-friendly. Plus, as a live stage platform for manipulating loops on the fly its brilliant. Manipulating loops is its forté, but its a fine sequencer in its own right.

I have 2 DAW's as we want to call them. A desktop (newly built overclocked 3.0Ghz C2D E6850) and I put my Delta66 + omni studio breakout box into it. I was debating on going with the M-Audio Ultralite for ~$550. Lot's of outs/ins and has MIDI on it. And it's firewire so portable. But I'd have had to get a firewire pci-x card for my mobo since it didn't come with it onboard. I hear FW is like zero latency compared to USB interfaces but I don't know firsthand on it. I use Live with the omni-studio and MIDIMan 2x2 for MIDI connectivity for the synths.

My laptop is another issue. It has the built-in video cam/audio into the display and I get nothing but feedback when I leave volumes normal. I have yet to find a way to completely turn it off so I don't have that problem. So in the meantime I just work within Live and will copy the .als file over since both systems have the samples (in different locations so some tweaking will be needed to duplicate it on the desktop). Glad to see Ben and Mark using Live. It's a helluva piece of software IMHO.

If you have firewire and see a lower/zero latency go with one of those. If not look at the USB options. I've seen some complaining about the M-Audio Ultralite on the net so you may want to read up on it before getting it. For me, MIDI and audio in/out is what I am looking at. I don't care about effects on the unit, etc...that's what the software is for. The laptop is an HP Pavilion DV9000T custom built which I updated the HD's to dual 120's then swapped the boot disk to a 250Gb due to running out of space with Native Instruments K2->K4->K5 installation. Nice 17" widescreen and price was decent searching for HP Laptop coupon last year, saved an additional $132 over HP's $150 when configuring it. Helps to search for them before buying (coupons).

Anyways, that's what I have along with M-Audio BX8a powered Studio Monitors aside my 20" WS samsung LCD on my Producers desk from Guitar Center ($399 I think, got it for $230 from friend who works there). Nice 5' desk w/42" top shelf and under it in middle you can rack-mount gear. I have my furman power conditioner there.

Last night, for our Viridian Sun sessions here in my studio, I used Live in a way I hadn't used it before. I routed the inputs from my MOTU 828 into Live and basically used Live to set up effects paths, and passed the output through another interface and into my Masterlink, where we just recorded a live, stereo mix. We were going to record 4 or 6 tracks live in Live, but some glitches were happening with that setup, so rather than troubleshoot it, we just passed the audio through Live as a multi-track effects processor, and out the other side.

I've been very fond of my MOTU 828 interface since early 2000, when I used it to start work on The Most Distant Point Known with Dave Fulton. It's been my primary audio interface since that time and I've used it with four different Apple computers, an iBook, a Powerbook, a G4 Powermac, and my new Mac Pro. It has always worked flawlessly and simply, no problems, no glitches, nothing to complain about.

In the past year, though, since I've upgraded to Mac OS X 10.4 (hate to think what would happen with 10.5), I've had increasing troubles with the interface getting "lost" and requiring multiple reboots before I can get the Mac Pro to "find" it again. It still seems to work OK with my older computers, but the Mac Pro is my main recording workstation now, so I'm about to change my primary audio interface for the first time in quite a while.

I considered several other options, and in fact almost bought a Focusrite Saffire Pro 26, and also considered an RME interface. Once I receive this item next week and set it up, I'll post a mini-review or evaluation here. I may also be selling my 828 here (though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone running the very newest Mac OS X version), depending on whether I just move it over to my G4, sitting 8 feet away. I'll definitely be selling one of my M-Audio Firewire Audiophile interfaces, since I was just using that for midi and supplemental monitoring on the Mac Pro. The new interface will replace both the 828 and the M-Audio device.

Yep, I liked that Presonus box. Lots of decent mic-pres, if thats your thing.And I really go for having line inputs on the front for quick swapping.If you don't need the qualities and extras of an RME I think this and the Saffire models are great for the money.Hope it works well for you.

I'm back to looking again - FocusRite and Presonus seem to be at the top of my list for value vs. function. I had a nice chat with my brother-in-law who is looking into setting up his first daw... I'm going to point him to the forum here for advice... he's looking to record primarily guitar.

I recently did a little darkish ambient thing called Preemtive Considerations using VAZ 2010 to make a couple of self-evolving patches, then just let them go for awhile in Capture mode resulting in a stereo wav file. Then I put that wav file into Cool Edit 2000(which also happens to work well in Vista!) and processed it a little further, then added a few strategically placed samples I made, further processed also, and presto...

Steve

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Ambient isn't just for technicians!

The artist isn't a special kind of man, but every man is a special kind of artist.

There are a couple of ways of looking at it - and I'm not sure which way I'd go... Ha.. the idea of replacing my 1604 with an Onyx version with firewire... cool (but holy cow, that's expensive! and that's not in my budget this year...).

Core wants...

4+ line inputs firewire seems to make the most sense budget is ~$500 or less

Bonus thoughts...

I love having a physical mixer - and especially several aux sends. Having the mixer and interface to the computer would be the best of both worlds (I think at least - I've never worked that way.).

Although I'm happy enough staying analog for all the mixing and just running a few outs to a soundcard. I do want more than a pair of stereo ins on the soundcard so I can record "live" situations - or multiple synths/effects at the same time.

The hopeful news Lloren is that this was a merger VS a buyout / takeover. TC still retains their autonomy. Maybe this means we will finally see the resurrection of Oberheim in a Powercore softsynth version.

Paul

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"I liken good ambient to good poetry ... enjoyable, often powerful, and usually unpopular" APK

The hopeful news Loren is that this was a merger VS a buyout / takeover. TC still retains their autonomy. Maybe this means we will finally see the resurrection of Oberheim in a Powercore softsynth version.

Talk to Chris Halaby formly of Opcode about megers and Gibson, and why would I want a softsynth imitation of my Oberheim? I thought the OB12, B3 organ imitations and grand piano that Gibson put out under the Oberheim banner was bad enough.

Humorusly, I got excited about an Edirol box that had 2 mic inputs and 6 line ins... (instead of the array of mic inputs on the Firestudio Project and Saffire 10) - and then I found the reviews which were all from 2004 which didn't excite me so much...